Deschamps Withdraws Appeal Against Riolo, Closes Defamation Case

Didier Deschamps has decided to end his legal action against journalist Daniel Riolo. The appeal hearing, scheduled for January 13, 2027 before the Paris Court of Appeal, will not take place: the former France national team manager has withdrawn his appeal in the defamation dispute that opposed him to the RMC commentator.

His lawyer, Me Isabelle Wekstein, justified this decision in the columns of L’Équipe. “We were all surprised, myself first, by the decision handed down by the court. Following the hearing, the public prosecutor had requested the conviction of Daniel Riolo with a severe requisition,” she recalled, before clarifying that the acquittal judgment was based in her view on “purely technical reasons that do not hold up legally.”

Me Wekstein stressed that the acquittal in no way validates the accusations made by Riolo: “The judgment does not say that Riolo’s accusations against Didier are founded: their truth was never examined. On the other hand, it recognizes Daniel Riolo’s intention to cast discredit on Didier, qualifies his remarks as anathemas, and finds that Didier could legitimately be hurt.” The conclusion is unambiguous: “By leaving his position as France national team manager at the end of an exceptional career, Didier has also regained a form of peace of mind, to which everyone is entitled to aspire. He prefers to look to the future.”

The matter stemmed from remarks made by Daniel Riolo between January and March 2023 on the L’After Foot program. The 56-year-old journalist had called Deschamps a “liar,” accusing him of orchestrating Karim Benzema’s departure just before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar when the striker could have, according to him, played again from the final stages. Riolo had also claimed that Deschamps’ name appeared in “all the shady affairs of French football,” citing the VA-OM corruption scandal (1993) and doping suspicions at Juventus Turin in the 1990s.

Deeming his honor tarnished, the 1998 World Cup winner had filed a defamation complaint. With this withdrawal of appeal, the legal case is definitively closed.